Advanced transceivers for spectrally-efficient communications

In this thesis, we will consider techniques to improve the spectral efficiency of digital communication systems, operating on the whole transceiver scheme. First, we will focus on receiver schemes having detection algorithms with a complexity constraint. We will optimize the parameters of the reduced detector with the aim of maximizing the achievable information rate. Namely, we will adopt the channel shortening technique. Then, we will focus on a technique that is getting very popular in the last years (although presented for the first time in 1975): faster-than-Nyquist signaling, and its extension which is time packing. Time packing is a very simple technique that consists in introducing intersymbol interference on purpose with the aim of increasing the spectral efficiency of finite order constellations. Finally, in the last chapters we will combine all the presented techniques, and we will consider their application to satellite channels.Comment: PhD Thesi

Iterative carrier synchronization in the absence of distributed pilots for low SNR applications

We consider the advanced modulation and coding schemes used in CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) standards for deep space telemetry and telecommand. They are based on a powerful turbo or low-density parity check (LDPC) outer code and binary modulation formats that, for those schemes foreseen to be employed at the lowest baud rates, may contain an unsuppressed carrier to help synchronization. In this paper, we face the problem of carrier phase synchronization for these modulation and coding schemes

A Tutorial on the Tracking, Telemetry, and Command (TT&C) for Space Missions

This paper presents a tutorial on the Tracking, Telemetry, and Command (TT&C) for spacecraft and satellite missions. In particular, it provides a thorough summary of the design of the TT&C, starting from elementary system aspects and going down to the details of the on-board TT&C subsystem design, its units, and the physical layer. The paper is then complemented with a description of emerging TT&C techniques and technologies, the standardization framework, and practical examples of actual spacecraft design of European space missions. The here-presented tutorial is thought for professionals (also in other telecommunication engineering fields) willing to face the challenges and state-of-the-art of the TT&C, and know more about this fundamental function that allows us to control and monitor our spacecraft on a daily basis

Improving the Spectral Efficiency of Nonlinear Satellite Systems through Time-Frequency Packing and Advanced Processing

We consider realistic satellite communications systems for broadband and broadcasting applications, based on frequency-division-multiplexed linear modulations, where spectral efficiency is one of the main figures of merit. For these systems, we investigate their ultimate performance limits by using a framework to compute the spectral efficiency when suboptimal receivers are adopted and evaluating the performance improvements that can be obtained through the adoption of the time-frequency packing technique. Our analysis reveals that introducing controlled interference can significantly increase the efficiency of these systems. Moreover, if a receiver which is able to account for the interference and the nonlinear impairments is adopted, rather than a classical predistorter at the transmitter coupled with a simpler receiver, the benefits in terms of spectral efficiency can be even larger. Finally, we consider practical coded schemes and show the potential advantages of the optimized signaling formats when combined with iterative detection/decoding.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Optimal transmit filters for constrained complexity channel shortening detectors

We consider intersymbol interference channels with reduced-complexity, mutual information optimized, channel shortening detectors. For a given channel and receiver complexity, we optimize the transmit filter to use. The cost function we consider is the (Shannon) achievable information rate of the entire transceiver system. By functional analysis, we can establish a general form of the optimal transmit filter, which can then be optimized by standard numerical methods. As a side result, we also obtain an insight of the behaviour of the standard waterfilling algorithm for intersymbol interference channels

Faster-than-Nyquist signaling for next generation communication architectures

We discuss a few promising applications of the faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling technique. Although proposed in the mid 70s, thanks to recent extensions this technique is taking on a new lease of life. In particular, we will discuss its applications to satellite systems for broadcasting transmissions, optical long-haul transmissions, and next-generation cellular systems, possibly equipped with a large scale antenna system (LSAS) at the base stations (BSs). Moreover, based on measurements with a 128 element antenna array, we analyze the spectral efficiency that can be achieved with simple receiver solutions in single carrier LSAS systems

On the use of multiple satellites to improve the spectral efficiency of broadcast transmissions

We consider the use of multiple co-located satellites to improve the spectral efficiency of broadcast transmissions. In particular, we assume that two satellites transmit on overlapping geographical coverage areas, with overlapping frequencies. We first describe the theoretical framework based on network information theory and, in particular, on the theory for multiple access channels. The application to different scenarios will be then considered, including the bandlimited additive white Gaussian noise channel with average power constraint and different models for the nonlinear satellite channel. The comparison with the adoption of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) is also provided. The main conclusion is that a strategy based on overlapped signals is convenient with respect to FDM, although it requires the adoption of a multiuser detection strategy at the receiver

On the use of Pseudo-Noise Ranging with high-rate spectrally-efficient modulations

In this paper, we study the feasibility of coupling the PN ranging with filtered high-order modulations, and investigate the simultaneous demodulation of a high-rate telemetry stream while tracking the PN ranging sequence. Accordingly, we design a receiver scheme that is able to perform a parallel cancellation, in closedloop, of the ranging and the telemetry signal reciprocally. From our analysis, we find that the non-constant envelope property of the modulation causes an additional jitter on the PN ranging timing estimation that, on the other hand, can be limited by properly sizing the receiver loop bandwidth. Our study proves that the use of filtered high-order modulations combined with PN ranging outperforms the state-of-the-art in terms of spectral efficiency and achievable data rate, while having comparable ranging performanc

Advanced techniques for spectrally efficient DVB-S2X systems

We investigate different techniques to improve the spectral efficiency of systems based on the DVB-S2 standard, when the transmitted signal bandwidth cannot be increased because it has already been optimized to the maximum value allowed by transponder filters. We will investigate and compare several techniques to involve different sections of the transceiver scheme. The techniques that will be considered include the use of advanced detection algorithms, the adoption of time packing, and the optimization of the constellation and shaping pulses. The LDPC codes recently proposed for the evolution of the DVB-S2 standard will be considered, as well as the adoption of iterative detection and decoding. Information theoretical analysis will be followed by the study of practical modulation and coding schemes